Joy and Sorrow
by Indigo931
Summary: William Giles is about to have his world turned upside down when he has to move in with his Uncle and Aunt who hate him. OOC. AU. you know, all the good things in life. Don't like, don't read but review anyway.
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A/N: Hey people of this is my first time writing a fic that wasn't anime based and definitely my first time writing Spike/Angel. This is a bit romance/drama/hurt/comfort and yes people it is slashy goodness so if you don't like, don't read. This is a AU and OOC, warnings emotional, verbal and physical abuse, future M madness and maybe attempted character death. I may have Penn and Buffy Bashing involved but as of now I'm still on the fence. Write reviews...LOTS and LOTS of reviews, give suggestions on what you think should happen next and mayhaps it might come true. The content may be a depressing but eh...this idea came to me at 2 in the morning and I've been working on it since. Remember people, be gentle it's my first time insert maniacal anime laugh.

_Italics - Thoughts _

William looked out the window with a sigh, the life he had known all his life was now coming to an end. He watched as the city of London started to fade into the distance, he was on his way to Los Angelus

California in the United States. On his sixteenth birthday his parents didn't come home, he had been waiting all night for them to return once he got home from school; it was in the a.m. hours when he

received the constable informing him that his parents had been in a motor accident on their way home from the market killing them instantly. After the funeral he was visited by the lawyer whom imparted

upon him the most devastating news he'd thought he could possibly stand, he would be living with his father's step brother Ethan and his wife Amy. Thus his life would be changed forever.

"Get up!" Amy growled while standing in the doorway of William's bedroom, "You are going to be late for your first day of school, honestly I don't understand how we got landed with you without any

compensation" she mumbled the last part while walking away but Will heard it all in the same. Will quickly got dressed and ran down the stairs bumping and almost knocking his uncle over; "damnit! Watch

where you're going" yelled Ethan as he raised a hand to hit Will, William braced himself for the blow when he heard Amy shout "Stop Ethan, you don't want to bruise him before school, save it until he gets

home and then do whatever you want to the little leach". Ethan lowered his hand and chuckled "you're right as always dear" he looked to William and glared "we'll finish this later". Will lowered his head and

walked down the stairs, _'this is my life now, they smiled in front of the lawyers and Judge to gain custody of me but they are really very cruel and abusive people' _Amy swatted William on the head "quit

daydreaming". Amy glanced at her watch and looked at Will, "you know, you have plenty of time…if you run really fast you'll be able to make it to school right before the bell rings".

Will looked at her, _'Is she serious? The school is too far away'_ Amy got into the driver side of the car and started it, "Are you coming or what?"; as Will made his way over to the passenger's side of the car Amy

began to pull off. "Let's Go!" she shouted out of the open window. Every time Will would get close to the car she would pull the car away until he was chasing after the car with all of his might. Finally when

she stopped the car and Will had a chance to breathe Amy got out of the car and pointed to the open fence in front of him, "see" she grinned "you're here and you still have time to get to class before the bell

rings…and I suggest you get moving because the bell is going to ring in 5 minutes and I will not be understanding if you get a late in class" with that she turned and got back in her car. Will frantically glanced

at the clock tower looming in the center of the courtyard _'CRAP, I'm going to be late for class! It will just give Ethan another reason to hit me'_. Will looked at his schedule and quickly ran into the main building; he

was so wrapped up in the changing room numbers that he didn't see what he ran into.

"Hey Loser, watch where you're going. You just ran into Angelus" William glanced up with large doe eyes and saw a petite blonde scowling down at him with her arms crossed over her chest. Will then looked

at the tall, broad guy standing behind her looking down at him with a small smile on his face. Will quickly shook his head and started to collect his book "I'm so very sorry" her murmured in a quiet voice. "Yuck,

British?" shrilled the blonde girl; the handsome brunette guy side stepped the blonde girl, kneeling down he started helping Will collect his books. "No, you don't have to help me" will said as he quickened the

retrieval of his books; "Don't worry about it" came a calm response, Will looked up in shock, the man's voice was deep and rich. Angel looked at the boy in front of him appreciatively but his attention was

quickly focused on a portion of skin on the boy's wrist. There on his wrist was a dark bruise that looked as though it was just starting to fade; Angel leaned forward so that his lips were right next to the boy's

ear and he whispered "you have bruises, where did they come from?" shocked by his words William quickly stood and with one last faint 'sorry' disappeared down the hall. Angel stood and glanced to his

group, eyes focusing on one of his members, "Lorne" and with that order Lorne disappeared down the hall as well.


	2. New Friends

As Will walked into the classroom and noticed the instructor wasn't in the class yet he let out a sigh of relief. He looked around the class and saw students drawing on the board, sitting on desks and holding

conversations, he lowered his head and sat down in an empty chair next to a girl who had her nose deep in a text book. As he sat she raised her gaze from the book and looked over at him, she was very

pretty, mid back brown hair; she was slender with very appealing facial features. "Hi, I'm Dawn Summers" she said while reaching her hand over to him, "I'm William Giles" he replied quietly. Dawn stared at

him and blinked before her face lit up with excitement "Wow, you're British", Will could only nod before the teacher stormed into the classroom and watched with sinister glee as his students scrambled into

their seats. "Pop quiz" he shouted and glared when he heard groans of protest, "Fine 'F's for the lot of you" Mr. McDonald was in a particularly nasty mood and he showed up to work today with the express

intent on taking it out on his students.

His eyes scanned the class as the students began the pop quiz, his gaze rested on a face that was new to him. "You" he pointed at Will, "who are you and what are you doing in my class?" Will stood up "I'm

William Giles and I just transferred to this school from England", Lindsey scowled "Well William, I want a 3 page paper due next class on how American School systems differ from British" and with that

Lindsey's attention left Will. William sank into his seat and continued taking his pop quiz, _'I wonder if all adults in this country are awful or if it is just my luck' _Will wasn't paying attention when the bell rang so

he flinched away when he felt a hand touch his shoulder. Will looked up to see Dawn looking down at him, "Class is over, what do you have next?" Will merely shrugged while getting up and handed Dawn his

schedule. "Cool, we have the same schedule" she said leading Will to their next class, the next two classes went rather quickly and soon enough will was sitting with Dawn at lunch. Dawn looked at Buffy as

she strutted around the cafeteria like a prized pony, she leaned to Will "that is Buffy; unfortunately she's my older sister. She thinks that she is queen Bee around here, I hate popularity" she sighed ramming

her head against the table.

Dawn sat her head up and watched Will as he stared out the window up at the sky. "Will, do you want to go get some food?" he shook his head without taking his eyes off of the window, "do you have lunch

money? None of the lunches here are free, you either buy lunch or you bring lunch from home" she explained while watching him. Will tightened his fist slightly, he didn't bring lunch and he didn't want to have

to ask Ethan and Amy for any money. "Hey, would you like some of my lunch seeing how you didn't bring any? My mom is a great cook and everything is made with love, she even packs cheese sticks with

love" she said chuckling. Will started laughing as well but he still shook his head "No thank you Dawn", Dawn looked down at the lunch her mother made for her and sighed "I get it; you think my mom is a

terrible cook don't you?". Will stared at her and frantically tried to explain what he meant "No, it's not like that at all" she looked up at him through lowered eyelids trying hard not to laugh at his panicked

state. "Prove it. Eat half of my lunch and maybe I'll believe you….maybe" she stated quickly putting half of her lunch in the lid of her lunch box before he figured out that he was being fooled.

Will tasted some of the food so as not to offend Dawn and watched her with wary eyes. _'this is delicious'_ Will thought as he woofed down the food with a vigor he didn't know he had. All too so the bell rang

signaling the end of the lunch period, Will and Dawn quickly cleaned up and raced towards their next class. As they left they didn't notice the figure that was leaning against the support beam located next to

their lunch table. The figure pushed himself off of the beam and headed to an abandoned classroom where Angel and the rest of the group sat around a table. Lorne sat next to angel and focused his red

contacted eyes on the presentation that Wesley was giving. "Nothing to report so far" Lorne whispered to Angel never taking is eyes off of the screen, "Keep watching" replied Angel while propping his

elbows on the table and leaning on his interlaced fingers "And keep me posted…" he said shifting his gaze to Lorne.


	3. The Ugly Truth

All too soon Will's school day came to an end; it wasn't as though he **loved** school, he just preferred it over going home. He had made a friend, he hadn't been bullied…if you excluded the first instructor, and he finally had something in his stomach that would tide him over until he could get home. Will separated with Dawn when she had to turn left to go home and he continued straight, he watched her back longingly wishing he had the type of life that she had instead of living with people who hated him. Will finally resigned himself to going home when Dawn was well out of his line of sight; he clutched his jacket around his body tighter as he remembered his uncle's words earlier that morning and he shuddered as he thought of what was in store for him when he returned home. Will quietly crept into the house trying his hardest not to make any noise as he entered the foyer, he removed his shoes in an effort not make any noise as he made his way to his room. As he passed the study door he heard Ethan and Amy talking about him, "what are we going to do with him?" Amy hissed through clenched "it's not as though your step brother and you were even close, why did he put in his will that we would get his brat if he croaked?" Amy plopped into her chair as Ethan paced the floor. "I don't know why Rupert landed us with his kid, but more importantly he didn't leave that brat anything, how can we use him for his inheritance if he bastard doesn't have one?"

Will thought he was going to be sick, how could these people who were supposed to be his family speak so cruelly of his dead mother and father; it wasn't as if they planned on dying in a car crash. Will felt his knees become weak and his stomach started to rebel, Will didn't have time to react as hand came racing toward him. Will hit the floor with a loud thud, he glanced up to see both Amy and Ethan towering over him with snarls distorting their faces. "You little bastard, where you eavesdropping on our conversation?" Ethan swiftly kicked Will in the ribs and sent his sliding across the floor, he was poised for another blow when Amy stepped forward and grabbed Will by his hair; "Get up and go to your room" she pushed Will towards the stairs and gripped Ethan's forearm as she turned back to the study. Ethan watched as Will scurried up the stairs trying his quickest to get away from them and up to the solace of his room, Ethan frowned and glanced to Amy; "I want him punished" she said as he walked back into the room. Ethan removed the double folded leather belt from his pants loops and started for the stairs. Amy sat in her chair by the fire sipping her tea as she listened to the cries of pain and anguish coming from upstairs and Will's room, she smiled inwardly as she heard the leather belt connecting with Will's skin and chuckled. _'God I hate kids'_

Will kept tossing and turning trying to avoid laying on one of the many bruises and welts that he now sported. He hissed as the course blanket rubbed against one of the welts that had formed on his side, he knew that it was going to be a long night. Will looked at the clock that hung on the wall across from his bed, _'3:30…'_ he turned and buried his face in the pillows and slowly drifted into a restless sleep plagued with dreams of the life that he lost and would never have again. It was a time when his parents were still alive and he was a happy young boy developing into a healthy, happy young man. The 8 year old version of him ran towards his father and mother who where both kneeling and awaiting him for an embrace, he had almost gotten to them when suddenly he was doused with ice cold water. Shocked and confused William jolted out of his sleep, with his heart racing he looked around frantically and spotted Amy standing next to his bed holding an empty pitcher. "Get up and get ready for school" then she turned and walked out of the room without looking back; William gingerly climbed off of this bed making sure to avoid touching any of his wounds. As quickly as he could William dressed and cautiously walked down the stairs hoping to avoid both Ethan and Amy, as William made it to the first floor Ethan stepped into the doorway of the kitchen.

William kept his focus on the floor, "I need to pack lunch, the cafeteria doesn't provide free lunch" Ethan arched an eyebrow and turned to look at Amy who had stopped moving behind him. Ethan turned back to William, "we will not be giving you lunch money…and as far as taking lunch with you, well, you have to get a job and bring some money for food if you want food here. Everyone who lives under this roof pulls their own weight and you are not exception, now go to school". William walked out of the house feeling as though the weight of the world had been dropped on his shoulders from a fifty story building. William wrapped up in his own thoughts when he noticed Dawn running up to him waving. "Hey early bird, I thought I was the only one who liked to walk to school an hour early" she said laughing and throwing her arm around his shoulders, Will inwardly flinched at the pain of physical contact against his bruised and welted back. Will barely had time to finish his paper that was due for his first class so as he and Dawn sat in the empty class he got to work finishing the essay.

The first three classes progressed quickly and soon enough Dawn and Will were heading to lunch, Will sat in his chair and proceeded to turn his focus on the sky out the window. Dawn looked at Will and poked him in the arm and watch his reaction, Will flinched away and turned to look at her. Dawn motioned for will to go and get lunch and frowned when he shook his head "I forgot my lunch money at home"; Dawn stared at Will intently and raised her eyebrow "I thought as much and that is why I asked my mom to make you some lunch as well…so are you going to tell me the truth?" Will looked up with wide eyes and then lowered his head when he noticed that she was unwavering. "If I don't get a job and provide money to the house they won't allow me to eat any of the food that they buy and they won't give me any lunch money" Dawn stared at him in shock "are you serious? Are they insane? They are your guardians they are supposed to take care of you and provide food". Will folded his arms on the desk and laid his head down on them "yeah…well, not mine"

Dawn digested what will just told her, she was appalled and disgusted that Will's family could treat him so harshly. "You can come and apply for a position at my part time job and I could always bring you lunch" she offered while watching him slowly eating the lunch. She started packing up her lunch as the bell rang; Will quickly tried to clean up the lunch box dropping the fork in the process. As Will bent over to pick up the fork his shirt rose up and Dawn gasped as she saw his back; he shot up and handed her the lunch box and fork "please don't say anything" he pleaded. Dawn huffed but nodded slowly "just think about working with me part time and tell me your answer after school" Will nodded and started for class. Lorne's cold red eyes followed Dawn and Will as they left the cafeteria _'so they abuse him, Angelus will be interested with my findings'_


End file.
